Find a new home for your unwanted stuff on eBay – and make some extra cash for yourself

We know the feeling: it’s February, your student loan is running low and you need a bit of extra cash. Fear not though, you could be sitting on a goldmine of things you could turn into cash by selling on eBay. Finding new homes for things just lying around your house is easier than you think, too: the mobile app means you can photograph and list your stuff seamlessly, and the tips below will help you get the best prices for your records, games, clothes and textbooks. For more helpful hints, visit eBay’s simple selling page.

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Vinyl

Take three or four pictures

Whatever you’re selling, you should include three or four pictures, showing the item from each angle. If you’re selling coloured vinyl, picture discs or a vintage record with a printed inner sleeve, whip it out and make sure to include pics of that too.

Be honest about the condition

There are many types of record collectors, but most of them are particular about their vinyl. Many collectors place condition above everything, and a scratched record – even if it plays – is not for them. So just be honest about the condition, describe it as best you can, and you can’t go wrong.

Invest in sturdy mailers

Trust us on this one: if you’re selling vinyl, record mailers are your best friend – they’ll keep the disc and its sleeve in great condition in the post. The cross-shaped, corrugated card ones are particularly sturdy, and you can pick them up cheaply on eBay.

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Vintage clothes

Get on the catwalk

Clothes look best with a body in them. It’s why fashion houses employ models to parade their designs down the catwalk. You should do the same when you’re selling your clothes: model them yourselves, or get a friend to do so. Chop your head out of the pictures if you like; the crucial thing is that you’re more likely to have someone fall in love with your jacket/blouse/skirt/sporran if they can see it being worn.

List the sizes

Vintage clothes tend to be a little unusual when it comes to sizing. A medium from the ’60s is not necessarily a medium today. So help out your fellow vintage lovers by listing a few key measurements: length, pit-to-pit and collar width.

Wash it

Where possible, wash and press the garments before sending – and your item’s new owner will be as delighted with it as you were.

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VHS cassettes

Do your research

The collectors’ market for VHS tapes is hotting up, which means you could be sitting on a small fortune if you’ve got a rare title in your collection. Before you list anything, search eBay for the tapes you’re selling, check out the prices being asked and list the most desirable ones first. You can then group the more common ones and get bulk paid for the lot.

Be a PAL

Videos were sold in different formats for different markets: American tapes were NTSC to work with US tellies, British tapes were PAL for UK sets. Make sure your listing says which format your tape is in.

Be kind, rewind

It shows you have a VCR player and you’ve checked the condition of the tape. If you don’t, list the tape as being untested – VHS tapes have a habit of getting snowy with repeated views.

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Video games

Find the jewels in your collection

We know the feeling – you’ve got a box of old Gameboy games and the temptation is to stick them on as a job lot. But have a look on eBay first, because the demand for old video games can vary wildly from title to title and you may have a highly valued cartridge that would get lost in the bundle. Listing multiple similar items separately is easy enough with eBay’s ‘Sell one like this’ function – it fills in as much information as possible, including postage fees, based on the original sale.

Include all the info

Collectors want to know if you have instruction books and any peripherals that came with the games, so include everything in the pictures and item description.

Consider Buy It Now

When listing, eBay will suggest whether your item is more likely to sell as a Buy It Now item or as an auction, and will even suggest a price or a starting price. If you’re listing as an auction, use the scheduler to make sure it ends at a sociable hour – you’re more likely to have a bidding war if your auction concludes at 6pm on a Sunday than 3am on a Wednesday.

Offer free shipping

eBay reckon that offering free shipping can increase sales by 30 percent, so for cheap-to-post items like games and CDs, it’s worth including the cost of postage in the start price or Buy It Now price.

Textbooks

Be smart about the listing

It’s important to use keywords to make sure potential buyers find your item. So when selling a textbook, make sure to include the author, title – and the word textbook. It’s simple to work out the keywords for any item – just think about what you would search for, or find similar items already listed and see how they did it.

Include the edition details

Textbooks are often revised and updated, and your fellow book lover will want to know which edition of the book they’re buying. Find the relevant information printed on a page near the inside front cover.

List the condition

Most people using a textbook will make notes, underline bits, and highlight passages. If you’ve done this, mention it in the Item Description. It won’t put many buyers off – they may even appreciate your notes!

With millions of buyer ready and waiting, selling on eBay is the perfect place to sell the stuff you no longer need. Visit eBay to get started.